Too many motorists drive too recklessly | Letters to the editor
The cause of the recent bicycle crash tragedy in Gulf Stream may have been health-related or due to some other innocent reason. However, we who drive Florida’s roadways share the bikers’ plight of having nowhere to escape.
We cannot avoid the legion of reckless drivers who speed excessively, run red lights, ignore stop signs, make dangerous lane changes and fail to use their turn signals. Florida, in fact, is among the worst states for pedestrian death rates in traffic accidents, placing behind only New Mexico and Arizona, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
Reckless drivers here proceed with impunity. On the roads, they behave as if Florida’s traffic safety laws are mere suggestions. This stems from the nearly complete lack of enforcement by state and local police.
I don’t know if this is a result of budget issues or that the political heat from enforcing traffic laws would be too much for elected officials. Nevertheless, many people have died unnecessarily and continue to be killed by Florida’s reckless drivers. Perhaps increased traffic enforcement would remove critical resources from policing drag shows and enforcing school book bans.
Sandy Coyman, Deerfield Beach
Voting by mail
Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia of Spring Hill has come up with some ridiculous legislation (SB 1752) to essentially eliminate mail-in voting in Florida. Wow. How low will they go?
I remember my mother, who was in her 80s, waiting in line to vote and she almost passed out in the hot sun. This is Florida. We have elderly people here and people who have jobs. This is cruel Republican legislation at work. Floridians love and appreciate the convenience of mail-in voting.
Our system is working. Why do Republicans keep making it harder for us to vote? Is this the only way they think they can win and say in power? So sad!
You’re not helping the people of Florida. You’re hurting us to help yourself.
Diane Miller, Plantation
(Editor’s Note: Both of the Legislature’s presiding officers have said they oppose changes that would restrict voting by mail in Florida, so Ingoglia’s proposal is highly unlikely to pass.)
One nation, divisible
Sadly, we have such a divided nation that each side accuses the other of wearing blinders. Yes, we all know the border crisis is a disaster, with Joe Biden’s name on it, but we also know that the Republican-controlled House would never give him a victory.
Why is it that what we see on TV cannot be accepted for what it is, such as the assault on the Capitol perpetrated by hordes of fanatical Trump supporters in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results?
Instead, they cannot accept it, so they resort to conspiracy theories that the riot was executed by FBI or Antifa infiltrators. Hundreds have been arrested since and there have been no whistleblowers. How is that even possible? It isn’t.
Listen to his words. Watch his actions. Donald Trump is nothing more than a cult leader whose followers are completely blind to his actions and his words. This has been the case since he first ran for president in 2016. Everything he’s done since then has been unprecedented, leading to two House impeachments and 91 criminal charges. He has not been convicted — yet — only because of the money and power he wields. Another Trump presidency would indeed include more unprecedented acts against our democracy, and for what? Cheaper gas? It’s not worth it.
Fernando Sereix, Cooper City
Dolphins did it again
As an aging codger walking through life from day to day, month to month, and year to year, I take a certain amount of solace in the fact that some things will never change. Some things will always be true.
Like the sun always rising in the east — and the Dolphins always blowing it in the end.
Bill Longmuir, Margate